Armando Saponaro

Assuming «The Sociology of Deviance: An Obituary» as a dialectical point of departure the paper critically deals with two main arguments Sumner developed to decree provocatively the «death» of sociology of deviance in the late seventies. The «idealistic» argument claims that radical and Marxist theoretical development in the late 1960s and early 1970s, undermining concept of deviance grounds and criticizing it till «death», have excluded its sociological meaning and any scientific utility; the «objective» one remarks that post-modern or late-modern society compared with original concept historical contest changed so much that it is hard now to find the necessary coordinates of the phenomenon it is supposed to describe. The author concludes affirming their renewed soundness nowadays, outlining the difficulties to maintain deviance currently useful as a sociological analysis tool in contemporary society, and the outlook for discipline taking in account conceptual and theoretical problematic issues as raised and highlighted.